AMCS ACTIVITIES NEWSLETTER

GUIDELINES FOR SUBMITTING MATERIAL

The AMCS Activities Newsletter seeks news notes or articles about all original
exploration and research on caves in Mexico as well as significant events such as cave
accidents. Articles and miscellaneous material such as cover photographs or photo
essays should be sent to the editor at editor@mexicancaves.org. The editor for the
next issue is Michael Pugliese. Items for the "Mexico News" section should
be sent to the compiler at news@mexicancaves.org.
The "Mexico News" compiler for the next
issue is Bill Mixon. Most material is received by e-mail.
If something is too large for that or needs to be sent on paper, consult the editor or compiler.

Articles should include all available cave maps and usually include
color or black-and-white photographs. Articles may also be photo essays
consisting mostly or entirely of photographs. There is no length limit,
but try to keep it under twenty thousand words. It is best to submit a
selection of photographs from which the editor may choose.

Shorter items of one to a few paragraphs for Mexico News may be accompanied
by maps or a photograph. Mexico News also mentions information found in web sites
or other publications about Mexican caves and caving, and the compiler would
appreciate links to or copies of such things that he might not have seen.

Text may be submitted in an e-mail for short items or as an attachment
in RTF or Word (.doc or .docx) format. Articles and news items may be submitted
in Spanish, to be translated into English for publication. Articles include a
short abstract in Spanish, which the author may supply in Spanish or English.
If the author does not supply an abstract, the editor will write one and
have it translated into Spanish.

Names of Mexican people, places, and caves should have the proper Spanish
accents (and especially the letter ñ) if possible. The editor can attempt to
supply them, but he does not really know Spanish. Accents are especially
important on cave maps, where they will be more difficult for the editor
to add. Accents are optional on capital letters in Spanish, but please use
them even on capital letters on maps, because others who subsequently
refer to the cave in ordinary text need to know where accents belong in
order to spell things correctly.

Photographs can be scanned from prints or slides, but almost all
photographs are sent as files these days. Photographs to accompany articles
or news items should be sent in color with at least 1200 pixels resolution
in the largest direction. They may be JPEG-compressed with high quality.
Files for photographs for most applications will probably be roughly 600 KB
in size. However, larger files with more pixels are always welcome.
Caption information, including the names of the photographer and any
people large enough in the photo to be recognized, should accompany
all submissions. Photos to be used on the covers or other full-page
applications will need higher resolution (3000 pixels high);
if a photograph accompanying an article is a prospect for a cover,
the editor will request a larger file.

Maps are usually printed full-page or smaller, although foldouts with
an image size of up to 10 by 14 inches may be used in exceptional cases.
Maps (and other line drawings) may contain grays or colors, but note that
a map with a lot of fine detail will reproduce better if it is strictly
black-and-white, as that permits printing at 600 DPI; grays or colors
get half-toned to 150 DPI. Never JPEG line copy like maps. A TIFF file
of 600 DPI at anticipated final size or a PDF made by Illustrator or a
similar drawing program is best; verify that the PDF contains the
necessary fonts. (In some cases, printing from a PDF may allow full
resolution of the black material such as labels and fine detail, with
only the grays or colors getting halftoned.) If it impossible to
legibly print the best map due to its size and amount of detail, a
PDF of the map could be put on the AMCS web site, with a link to it
in the article. In such a case, however, a simplified map suitable
for printing should be included in the article.

E-mail addresses of authors of articles are published, so
supply that information for at least one author, especially in a
case where the author's preferred or permanent e-mail address is different
from the one used in corresponding with the editor.